Harry Shearer Is Leaving 'The Simpsons' After 26 Seasons

Harry Shearer, the comic and actor who provides the voices for numerous iconic characters, including Mr. Burns and Ned Flanders, is leaving the show. Shearer tweeted a message late Wednesday that he said came from an attorney for James L. Brooks, one of the show's executive producers:

from James L. Brooks' lawyer: "show will go on, Harry will not be part of it, wish him the best.". (1/2)

Along with the characters of Mr. Burns and Ned Flanders, Shearer provided the voices of Principal Seymour Skinner, Smithers, news anchor Kent Brockman, the Schwarzenegger-esque action hero Rainier Wolfcastle and more. His role in 2013's "Four Regrettings and a Funeral" episode even won him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voiceover Performance.

Shearer has had a prolific career beyond his work on "The Simpsons." He was a cast member twice on "Saturday Night Live," and portrayed Derek Smalls in "This Is Spinal Tap" and other "Spinal Tap" projects. He also frequently collaborates with fellow "Spinal Tap" bandmate Christopher Guest, appearing in the films "For Your Consideration" and "A Mighty Wind."

In the 23rd annual "Treehouse of Horror," we go back to ancient times when a Mayan Homer and Marge are witness to the prediction that 2012 will be the end of the world, the Springfield Subatomic Supercollider creates a black hole that terrorizes the city, a little unholy pact Marge when she was younger makes things go bump in the night and Bart travels to 1974 to buy a comic book at cover price but inadvertently disrupts Homer and Marge's courtship in the all-new "Treehouse of Horror XXIII."